Irish League boss Stuart King confident there's plenty more still to come from Carrick Rangers captain David Cushley after celebrating milestone moment

Respected statistician Marshall Gillespie posted that Cushley has played 600 times during a successful career that includes lifting a league title and Irish Cup crown with Crusaders while the 34-year-old also won the League Cup with Lisburn Distillery in 2011 and helped Ballymena United achieve County Antrim Shield success by scoring in a 3-2 final victory over Linfield (January 2016).

According to Gillespie, Cushley has scored 146 goals – with some truly memorable ones amongst them – and provided 99 assists in 36,637 minutes across all competitions.

Carrick chief King was a teammate of Cushley’s as he was starting out with Ballymena and when appointed as new boss at the Loughview Leisure Arena in the summer of 2021, he made him his second signing – and club captain not long after.

"He has been a brilliant Irish League player over the years, scored some amazing goals and that's probably what he’s renowned for,” said King. “When I first took over at Carrick I made him club captain and he has been really influential in the changing room...I can't talk about him highly enough.

"He was someone I knew and I knew his dad. He wasn't getting enough game time at Crusaders and I genuinely thought coming to us would suit him really well with our tight pitch. His ability to score goals from midfield is what I really went after...he was another senior player that had won trophies.

"When I first took over I said I was going to bring in quality and I think my first two signings were Jim (Ervin) and Cush, which were two major signings. We chased after him and thankfully he decided to come with us."

Saturday’s strike marked Cushley’s eighth goal of the season – a sixth in the Premiership – and he undoubtedly has a crucial role to play if Carrick are to achieve club history this term by finishing in the league’s top-half for the first time.

They sit just one point behind current sixth-placed occupants Coleraine ahead of their weekend trip to fellow contenders Loughgall and King believes that Cushley can be a driving force behind future success for years to come.

"He deserves so much credit...600 games at any level is absolutely ridiculous, but 600 at the highest level in this country is remarkable,” he added. "He has been phenomenal for me and hopefully he can keep it going for the next couple of years and keep pushing the club forward.

"His figures are ridiculous...the majority of his goals come from out wide or from midfield. It's a phenomenal record and I wouldn't think many would have more than that from midfield or wide areas.

"Some centre forwards would love his record, never mind midfielders...it's a ridiculous level he's playing at year on year.”

Cushley is also acting as a role model to the younger players in Carrick’s changing room and King says the next generation aspire to have a career like their captain.

"It's a fact that he doesn't get the credit he deserves from the outside,” he said. “There's a lot of stuff he does around the club that people don't realise.

"Even at the Crues he was an unsung hero. People think of Cush scoring long range goals, but there's a hell of a lot more to him both on and off the field.

"My young lads look up to him and he gives them really good advice. The young boys aspire to have a career like Cush because anybody who has a career like that has done remarkably well.

"I can't speak more positively about the things he does for me and my football club.”